Comments for POETICKS

Comment on Entry 213 — More Really Intellectual Chatter by Bob Grumman

Bob Grumman — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:30:55 +0000

Glad someone’s out there visiting this site, Kaz, but not sure what “the ones” you speak of are? Age is definitely slowing me down.

–Bob

Comment on Entry 213 — More Really Intellectual Chatter by Kaz Maslanka

Kaz Maslanka — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:46:15 +0000

And the ones that mother gives you doesn’t do anything at all.

Comment on Entry 198 — The Kelly Writers House by Al Filreis

Al Filreis — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:59:24 +0000

As I wrote to Bob when he replied by email by sending the text above, he’s assuming that we are a mainstream Big Name venue, which we’re not at all. Here’s what I wrote in reply:

‘I’m on the road so this reply will be too brief. Sorry! KWH Fellows is our only “big name” program. We host 100s of others and in those really reach out. We have a program, now in its 3rd year, whereby we give young artists subsidized housing and an affiliation with us, etc. A real “fellow” position. Generally we don’t provide much in the way of honoraria but we try. We’ve gotten some funding from arts foundations but not much; mostly we try to operate on funds given us by individual donors.’

Here is our list of collaborators:

http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/collaborations.php

And here is our list of featured visitors:

http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/people/visitors/

- Al

Comment on Entry 195 — A little Whining by Marton Koppany

Marton Koppany — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:17:31 +0000

Bob,
I wish you Twelve Happy Months with One Major Happiness – and more!!! (I’m a minimalist perhaps, but not a doctrinaire one.)

Comment on Entry 195 — A little Whining by Connie Tettenborn

Connie Tettenborn — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:38:09 +0000

Never had a major happiness?? What about the first time you had something published? And didn’t a museum purchase one of your more visual long division poems?

Comment on Entry 184 — More Nothingnesses by Bob Grumman

Bob Grumman — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 10:08:17 +0000

I was referring to the work of mine mixing math and words that I call an aphorism and others might argue is a poem. For me, it is not art. I agree that mathematics by itself is never art. Mixed with words, it can be.

Is math culture-less? Well, it depends on what you mean by “culture.” I define culture (loosely) as pretty much everything human beings do beyond surviving and reproducing. Science, art, sports, games, philosophy, religion . . .

Comment on Entry 184 — More Nothingnesses by Kaz Maslanka

Kaz Maslanka — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 09:20:03 +0000

I don’t take mathematics as art – I personally draw the line at culture. Math is culture-less.

Comment on Entry 182 — “Dash No. 1,” by Koppany by Marton Koppany

Marton Koppany — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:37:00 +0000

Thank you so much for your words, Nico! (I’ve just come home from vacation and read your comment.) The two pieces on the two sides of the dash are identical: they’re the image of an iceberg, taken from the internet. I’d had a certain idea, and needed an iceberg for it. But I hadn’t guessed beforehand that they would look like a pair of shoes. I’m always in a dialogue with the “material”. This time the “material” really surprised me, and it took the initiative. The second surprise came from
“Magic Wand” (of a simple image editor software). I wanted to insert a piece of mountain-like negative space (made of sky) between the two icebergs, but I did something wrong, and had to realize that the edges of the sky are “thawing” – in complete synchrony with the icebergs. (My original idea got an extra confirmation, which was stronger than mine.) I didn’t touch the image from that point on. DASH is the base of a mountain-like (and already thawing) negative space between two disappearing icebergs which are identical with each other. And the shoes belong together, and the negative space is their wearer. There’s no separate place or time for the thought “between” the two other thoughts. They “happen” at the very same moment and belong together.

Or something like that.

Comment on Entry 183 — Another by Marton by Marton Koppany

Marton Koppany — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:44:18 +0000

Thank you so much for your encouragement, Bob! It means a lot!
(I’ve just read your entry. I was out of town /and without internet connection/ for five days from Sunday.

All the very best,
Marton

Comment on Entry 184 — More Nothingnesses by Bob Grumman

Bob Grumman — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:50:49 +0000

Thanks, Kaz. I pretty much agree with you about the difference between you and me as mathematical poets except that I’d phrase it slightly differently: I think we’re both interested in the metaphor, but you prefer metaphors about ideas, I about sensual images.

As for Jesse’s comments, haiku are aphorisms the same way sonnets are essays. If you want to taxonomize, as I do, you have to decide which a thing most is, not just clump everything together. I feel my mathematical text here is much more a statement of opinion than an attempt to express beauty. If we take it as art, what can’t we take as art?

all best, Bob